Karl Marx summed up Communism as “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” … … [T]he saying implies but does not name the effective agency of its supposed utopia. The agency is called “The State,” and the motto, fleshed out, for the benefit of the easily confused must read “The State will take from each according to his ability: the State will give to each according to his needs.” “Needs and abilities” are, of course, subjective. So the operative statement may be reduced to “the State shall take, the State shall give.”

Justice Thomas is a jurist in full. As a lawyer I admire his understanding of the law. But though I disagree with his constitutional interpretations on many things–the Confrontation Clause, sentencing fact-finding, the right to anonymity–I look to him most as an examplar of fidelity to the oath he and I have both taken to the Constitution. God speed his pen.